London Falling

As Manhattan prepares to end 2007 with an unusually high number of home sales--as well as with a few home-price records--its main municipal rival may be ending the year struggling. The Financial Times (and other media) report that London's housing market has started to feel the effects of a nationwide housing slump in Great Britain.

An "authoritative" survey of real estate brokers shows that confidence in home-price increases is at its lowest since 1998. Simply put, buyers aren't as interested as they used to be for many of the same reasons they're not in a large portion of the United States--a tighter credit market and a general negativity about housing now.

The negativity, according to reports, has spread to London, where the survey revealed that brokers are the most pessimistic they've been about home prices since September 2005. Buyer interest, the survey concluded, has also waned in the British capital.